Klout, social media, social status, and social class

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

I got an invitation to join Klout yesterday.  I had no idea what Klout was so I spent some time chatting on-line and in-person with colleagues and reading reviews of Klout.  Officially Klout is touted as “making influence measurable” by tracking your influence through social media.

Once I learned what Klout was I became fascinated by the social class implications of this  tracking software.  Klout may have been designed to help businesses track the extent to which their tweets are re-tweeted, or how often people click their Facebook profiles, but Klout is being marketed to individuals also.  One of my Twitter active colleagues noted, on Facebook of course, that “I monitor my score and prefer not to see it drop.”

Paying attention to the rules that Klout uses will shape your postings toward those which get you more Klout influence points.  Any game player, especially complex computer game players, will mold their behavior so that they can accumulate more points.  Klout, from one perspective, is a social media game that you can win.  Whether or not the rules of Klout actually reflect anything in reality is a matter for a discussion of measurement validity. 

Since Klout is not a zero sum game (if I win a point then you lose a point) losing has relative and not absolute meaning.  Winning, having more points, is still winning.  Now you can have a real-time assessment of your on -line influence.  Influence will be, for many people, equated with social status.  Influence will be, for many people, equated with social capital.  If you have a high score then you are a winner.  If you have a low score then you are a loser.

Which of us has not done a Google search on our own name and the name of someone else to compare our scores?  Which of us has not posted something to Twitter hoping that it will get Re-Tweeted?  Klout can calculate your popularity in social media in real time so that you can use it to judge your personal worth, your social status, and your social class.  Or not.

Reflected social status and social class

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

Indiana State University

Our social status comes from quite a variety of sources.  Some of our social status comes from our own accomplishments, some from our parents, and some from reflected social status of our purchases and affiliations.  Positional goods, prestige fashion, are one example of reflected social status.  If you wear or carry a high fashion high prestige high status accessory then the status and prestige of the object transfers to you.  Women’s fashion purses are an example of positional goods.  The large corporate logo, the identifiable pattern of the cloth, and the repeated logo are all designed to enhance the reflected social status of the owner. 

It has been argued that large logos, obviously labeled fashion, are the sigil of an insecure middle class and subtly labeled fashions are the sigil of a more secure upper middle class – smaller labels occur as you move upscale in fashion.  The status secure require no labels.

But, what about other reflected social status?  In some ways sports team affiliation and the emphasis on a team’s win-loss records is one way to achieve reflected status.  “Everybody loves a winner!”  This leads to all manner of accounting behavior – excuses – when the team is losing.  Interestingly the social status of a particular college is a reflection of the status of their sports teams.  Drawing a parallel between winning at football and preparing a student for Pre-Law is a stretch, but many people manage to make that illogical and data free jump. 

College affiliation, often marked by the class ring sigil, the t-shirt sigil, or rear window decal sigil, is another way to attain reflected social status.  Somehow a child’s academic affiliation becomes part of the reflected social status of the entire family.  “Well, our daughter is Pre-Law at Darwinian College you know.” Both the child’s major and the university are sources of reflected social status for parents. 

College reputation is critical for faculty and administrators.  The kind of work people do is central to social status - there is a large literature on occupational prestige.  Looking closely where people work is a critical part of social status.  Working at a high prestige campus has higher social status than working at a lower prestige campus.  Most campus public affairs offices publicize the campus as excelling in some area so that the rest of campus can bask in reflected glory.  Key phrases describing a campus enter into common language.  For example this was brought to my attention by a colleague:  "We are a world class campus." My question would be why faculty and administrators feel a need to affirm and create a specific kind of status.  Is the status created so that the faculty and administrator can accept the reflected high prestige.  Do faculty and administrators on low prestige campuses soft pedal their institutional affiliation in order to avoid reflected low prestige?

Positional goods can be purchased, sports team affiliation can change, and accounting behavior employed to explain the losing season.  “Well, it was a building year.”  And yet, reflected social status is a stronger source of social class attributed identity than are individual accomplishments.  For one thing, it is easier to see reflected social status through the sigils on display.  It is far harder to see accomplishments.  

The Barratt Simplified Measure of Social Status (BSMSS)

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

Indiana State University

June 14, 2012

This measure is built on the work of Hollingshead (1957, 1975) who devised a simple measure of Social Status based on marital status, retired/employed status (retired individuals used their last occupation) educational attainment, and occupational prestige.  This is a measure of social status, which is a proxy for socio-economic status.  This is not a measure of social class, which is best seen as a cultural identity.  An individual’s or their parents’ educational attainment and occupational prestige can change over their life. Social class, especially social class of origin identity, stays with each person throughout their life similar to gender identity and ethnic identity.

Two important changes have been made to the Hollingshead Four Factor measure of social status as it was transformed into the BSMSS.  First, the list of occupations has been updated based on the work of Davis, Smith, Hodge, Hakao, and Treas (1991) who calculated occupational prestige ratings from the 1989 general social survey.  Hollingshead originally had 9 occupational groups, so the 1989 data was divided into 9 groups.  To develop the dividing lines between the 9 groups the distribution of the "Prestige Score" was examined closely.  Scores ranged from 86 for Physician to 17 for Miscellaneous Food Preparation Occupations, however, below Physician there was a gap of eleven points until the next occupation of Lawyer, and 30 occupations ranked as a 74.  Clearly the "Prestige Score" would not lend itself to a readily apparent set of 9 divisions.

It was decided to use a 6 or 7 point spread for each of the 9 divisions, using judgments for the dividing line based on the fall-off, or scree, of the plotted scores.  Once the 9 divisions had been made raters were asked to identify typical, or common, occupations from within each group to use as the descriptors in the instrument.

The second change was to recognize the generational shift in social status. The BSMSS accounts for an individual's parent's educational attainment and occupational prestige and combines that with the individual's own family's educational attainment and occupational prestige.  An arbitrary weighting was given of 2:1 for Individual's family scores to parent's family scores.  Social class mobility, in the US, is a fact of life.  As with all identities growth is an aggregating process, so we all carry identities from our family of origin into our attained identity of the moment.  The choice of a 2:1 weighting recognized that the individual's current identity is the most important.

Hollingshead's original conceptualization of educational attainment has been maintained faithfully, as has his weighting of educational attainment to occupational prestige of 3:5.

The BSMSS does not produce a measure of SES in any absolute sense.  A discussion of the larger issues of SES is not the point here; suffice it to say that no classic definition of SES, or even the larger issue of social class, exists.  The score that results from this measure is ordinal only. It is sufficient for regression analysis or for creating social status groups based on the data collected.  The BSMSS is not designed to identify any individual or group as belonging to any particular social class, or socio-economic status, or social status.

Note please that assumptions about a mother’s or father’s contribution to an individual’s social class are Hollingshead’s. Stay-at-home mothers are not included in this calculation even though we know that mothers are an important influence on children.

Psychometric properties: Reliability is not an appropriate question to evaluate the BSMSS because this is not a scale.  Validity is appropriate as a question and as with all demographic questions the researcher must determine if the question does in fact reflect the question being asked.  Essentially the BSMSS provides a demographic question to help frame an understanding of the individual participants in a study. 

For permission to use the BSMSS or for a list of articles and dissertations that have used the BSMSS please contact the author at will dot barratt at indstate dot edu.  This material had originally be posted on the author's campus website and has now been moved here to in order to adapt to emerging technology and server space.

EDIT - SES is not social class

References

Davis, J., Smith, T., Hodge, R., Nakao, K., & Treas, J. (1991). Occupational prestige ratings from the 1989 general social survey. Ann Arbor MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.

Hollingshead, August B. (1957). Two factor index of social position. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four factor index of social status. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

   

This material is not available for use without permission from the author.  

This is not Open Source.

Permission will be freely given for research and there is a cost for commercial/business use.  

Email will dot barratt at indstate dot edu with a description of your study and assurances that you have appropriate approvals for your research.  

The Barratt Simplified Measure of Social Status (BSMSS)

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

Circle the appropriate number for your Mother’s, your Father’s, your Spouse / Partner's, and your level of school completed and occupation. If you grew up in a single parent home, circle only the score from your one parent. If you are neither married nor partnered circle only your score. If you are a full time student circle only the scores for your parents.

Level of School Completed	Mother	Father	Spouse	You
Less than 7th grade	3	3	3	3
Junior high / Middle school (9th grade)	6	6	6	6
Partial high school (10th or 11th grade)	9	9	9	9
High school graduate	12	12	12	12
Partial college (at least one year)	15	15	15	15
College education	18	18	18	18
Graduate degree	21	21	21	21

Circle the appropriate number for your Mother’s, your Father’s , your Spouse / Partner's, and your occupation. If you grew up in a single parent home, use only the score from your parent. If you are not married or partnered circle only your score. If you are still a full-time student only circle the scores for your parents. If you are retired use your most recent occupation.

Occupation	Mother	Father	Spouse	You
Day laborer, janitor, house cleaner, farm worker, food counter sales, food preparation worker, busboy.	5	5	5	5
Garbage collector, short-order cook, cab driver, shoe sales, assembly line workers, masons, baggage porter.	10	10	10	10
Painter, skilled construction trade, sales clerk, truck driver, cook, sales counter or general office clerk.	15	15	15	15
Automobile mechanic, typist, locksmith, farmer, carpenter, receptionist, construction laborer, hairdresser.	20	20	20	20
Machinist, musician, bookkeeper, secretary, insurance sales, cabinet maker, personnel specialist, welder.	25	25	25	25
Supervisor, librarian, aircraft mechanic, artist and artisan, electrician, administrator, military enlisted personnel, buyer.	30	30	30	30
Nurse, skilled technician, medical technician, counselor, manager, police and fire personnel, financial manager, physical, occupational, speech therapist.	35	35	35	35
Mechanical, nuclear, and electrical engineer,  educational administrator, veterinarian, military officer, elementary, high school and special education teacher,	40	40	40	40
Physician, attorney, professor, chemical and aerospace engineer, judge, CEO, senior manager, public official, psychologist, pharmacist, accountant.	45	45	45	45

Level of School Completed Scoring

1	If you grew up with both parents add Mother + Father and divide by 2. If you grew up with one parent enter that score to the right.
2	If you are married or partnered add Spouse + You and divide by 2. If you live alone enter Your score to the right. If you are a full-time student leave this blank.
3	Double your score from line 2. If you are a full-time student leave this blank.
4	If you are a full-time student enter only your parents’ score. Add line 1 and line 3 then divide by 3 (three) for a TOTAL EDUCATION Score should be between 3 and 21

Occupation Scoring

1	If you grew up with both parents add Mother + Father and divide by 2. If you grew up with one parent enter that score to the right.
2	If you are married or partnered add Spouse + You and divide by 2. If you live alone enter Your score to the right. If you are a full-time student leave this blank.
3	Double your score from line 2. If you are a full-time student leave this blank.
4	If you are a full-time student enter only your parents’ score. Add line 1 and line 3 then divide by 3 (three) for TOTAL OCCUPATION Score should be between 5 and 45

TOTAL Score:

Add TOTAL EDUCATION + TOTAL OCCUPATION: Score should be between 8 and 66

This material is protected under US copyright law and international treaty.  

This material is not available for use without permission from the author.  

This is not Open Source.

Permission will be freely given for research and there is a cost for commercial/business use.  

Email will dot barratt at indstate dot edu with a description of your study and assurances that you have appropriate approvals for your research. 

Google Scholar has a list of citations for this material.

Author contact - will dot barratt at indstate dot edu

Social class is hidden in plain sight

Will Barratt, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Leadership
Indiana State University

Believe what you know.  Social class is everywhere; it is within us, it surrounds us, and we all co-create it daily.  The social class divide only exists because of our collaboration.  Like the ninja, like the purloined letter, social class is hidden in plain sight.  We all see social class, we all participate in co-creating it, but we somehow make what we see invisible. 

“What does social class look like?” is not the key question here because it looks a little different for each of us.  The key question here is: “Why don’t we see social class?” 

In order to celebrate and work with social class we need to see it, claim it, and own it.  What prevents each of us from seeing social class?  What filter obscures our view of the obvious?

We see the designer purses, we see social hierarchy, and we see prestige colleges, clothing, and cars.  We each participate in the co-construction of prestige within our own lives.  We each know our place within the work, play, local, regional, and global hierarchy.  We each have a social class identity.  We each participate in celebrations and events that are authentic to our social class of origin and current felt social class.  We each have a social class culture with shared foods, attitudes, symbols, events, norms, dress, music, attitudes toward education, and much more.  We know social class in our lives, but we don’t believe what we know.

The reasons for our social class blindness are not cognitive; we all cognitively see social class cues.  The reasons for our social class blindness are emotional; the reasons are fear and ignorance.  You will have social class blindness reasons of your own, but we all share fear and ignorance.  How each of us manages our fear and how each of us manages our ignorance is a test of our character. 

Fear

Fear is the mind killer, fear leads to the dark side, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself . . . we do not lack for pithy statements on fear.  Fear is personal.  What do you fear in social class that makes you blind to it?  Naming your fear, owning it, and confronting that fear are the first steps to overcoming it.

Ignorance

I need to constantly confront my ignorance in order to become more effective.  I may have uninformed ignorance, for example I don’t know the poetry of Li Bai.  But, now that I know this about myself I have informed ignorance.  If I don’t take the time to learn his poetry then I have willful ignorance.  I am willfully ignorant about many things, like Li Bai, like bird habitat in North America, like organic chemistry, and that is OK in my life.  I am not willfully ignorant about social class, about gender, or about ethnicity because I try to be an effective world citizen and respect diversity. 

False knowledge is the illusion of knowledge.  False knowledge is the ignorance of accepting prepackaged, preconceived information, or accepting knowledge that is past its expiration date.  False knowledge is believing that I know something because someone told you something once.  False knowledge is dangerous because nothing motivates me to learn what I think I already know.  Why would I add tea to a cup that I believe is already full?  Indeed, why would I believe that the cup of knowledge can ever be filled? 

Knowledge has an expiration date, ignorance is a renewable resource.  Understanding your ignorance, owning it, and confronting are the first steps to overcoming it.

What will you do?

Fear and ignorance are not good reasons to avoid confrontation.  Social class is invisible to us because we do not want to confront it, see it, claim it, own it, and celebrate it.  Overcoming fear and ignorance is the path to seeing, claiming, owning, and celebrating social class. 

Without fear and ignorance social class can no longer hide in plain sight.

Note: I am indebted to Coffman Distinguished Professor Maurice Miller for our conversation about fear and ignorance.  I am indebted to Allport, Clark, and Pettigrew for their book The Nature of Prejudice. 

Celebrate Social Class Diversity

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

Department of Educational Leadership
Indiana State University

Celebrating social class diversity brings us face to face across the divide of our differences.

In the US we celebrate lots of things.  Summer brings an array of nationality and ethnicity festivals and different cities, towns, and neighborhoods vie for the best festival of its type.  These festivals reinforce national and ethnic identity, introduce guests to important cultural practices, and, if it is a great festival, introduce everyone to important foods.  These celebrations bring us face-to-face across the divide of our differences. 

Are there social class celebrations that bring us together?

When my wife and I were doctoral students at The University of Iowa we lived outside the small farming town of Wellman, Iowa.  Our neighbors, Gordon and Lois Schlaubaugh and their sons, took us to the 1980 4^th of July celebration in town.  The celebration featured all of what you would expect, singing the national anthem, a prayer for the hostages in the embassy in Iran, 4H and FFA exhibits, baked goods, local cookbooks for sale, and great homemade food.  There was a tractor pull which was a serious event in Wellman.  Each family cheered for their tractor brand, red or green, reinforcing their brand loyalty. 

I would argue that this 4^th of July event was also a social class celebration, and the Schlaubaughs’ invitation was a welcoming hand of friendship extended across the divide.  Iowa doctoral students and an Iowa Mennonite farm family experienced a moment together.  I don’t know if it was their Mennonite generosity that moved them to invite us, but even now I recall that shared moment.  In their on-going generosity and welcoming hospitality we went out to dinner in towns near-by, we went out for ice cream, and we spent time in their home.  We tried to reciprocate, we brought them things we picked up when the spent the summer in Salzburg, Austria, we sent their kids post cards whenever we travelled, we had a dinner party for the neighborhood, and we pitched in when there was work to be done, like making apple cider with their antique steam powered cider press.  We continue to exchange holiday cards, and we see each other occasionally.

What are social class celebrations?  I would suggest that almost every celebration has social class overtones.  The opera and ZZ Top concerts, demolition derby and Formula 1, dinner out, bowling, prom, and sporting events all have social class overtones.  All of these are social class celebrations of a sort. 

Invite someone who is not like you and welcome them to a celebration that is authentic to your social class of origin. 

Say “Yes” when you are invited to a celebration that is not authentic to your social class of origin or to your current felt social class.

Say “Yes” to welcoming others to your events.  We have all been unwelcomed somewhere and we know where that leads emotionally. 

To welcome someone means to make guests comfortable, to show guests the shared unspoken rules of the event, to comfort guests from too much conflict.  In being social class celebration host you may be surprised at what you learn about your own celebration.  I was placed at a celebration dinner table set with an array of flatware, glasses, and implements of feasting one evening, and I realized from watching my tablemates that they were uncomfortable with the table setting.  Remembering those times when I was confused I did what I could to make them comfortable.  We all had a great evening, bridging the social class table setting divided.

To be a guest in a social class celebration that is not authentic to your social class of origin means to be uncomfortable and to be a host means to be a guide and to make others comfortable. 

If social class is personal, if social class is like any other diversity, then bridging the gap needs to be personal.  It needs to start with you and me, and it needs to start today. 

Google "Celebrate Social Class"

Will Barratt, Ph.D. 

Here is an interesting experiment:  Google “celebrate social class diversity”, make sure to include the quotes. 

After that Google “celebrate social class”.  Try some other variations.  

Try “celebrate [your diversity / ethnicity / nationality here]”.  

Interesting, isn’t it.  

We all need to celebrate social class.  Own social class, claim social class, celebrate social class. 

Emotionality, rationality, social class, and student retention on campus

Will Barratt, Ph.D.

How much of student retention on campus, students choosing to continue enrollment semester to semester and year to year, is an emotional choice and how much is a rational choice?

Do different students, Louise and Larry from the campus lower / minority class contrasted with Misty and Markey from the campus middle / majority class, have different emotional / rational ratios?

Do campus structural and organizational processes offset negative feelings?

What are the emotional reasons that help students to stay?  

Can we give any student an emotional reason to stay?

I am seeking comments and input here.  Yes, I know that this is a US biased question and discussion, and if you have an international perspective please share it. 

Thanks.

Will

Tweet or Facebook this question with a link and add a comment here please.